Daily updates: FAO at the 2021 HLPF
FAO is actively participating in the High-level Political Forum (HLPF), helping map progress, challenges, and pathways to achieve SDG2 and transform agri-food systems, in addition to contributing to the follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
New York – 14 July During today’s side event “Rethinking rural development for achieving SDGs,” FAO Director of Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality, Benjamin Davis, shared FAO’s vision on pursuing synergies between social inclusion, improved nutrition and environmental sustainability as part of a wider rural development effort that leaves no one, among the world’s 3.4 billion rural people, behind. To this end, Davis, emphasized that, historically, agriculture has been a driver of growth, but that this growth has not always taken account of key trade-offs or pursued reduced inequalities. He stressed the importance of ensuring rural people have access to land, markets, insurance, credit and social protection, coupled with efforts to bridging the digital divide between rural and urban populations.
The event discussed the World Social Report 2021, entitled “Rethinking Rural Development,” examining country experiences and their implementation through cross-cutting and inter-sectoral policies. Davis echoed the World Social Report’s overarching call to addressing the multidimensional and interconnected challenges that continue to impact rural populations if we are to achieve the SDGs by 2030.
Pointing to the urgency in linking development processes with environmental sustainability and social inclusion, Davis said how “an inclusive process of economic development is about increasing returns to the assets that the poor hold and making sure those assets are fairly distributed, such as land and labour, which is why education is so important.” Speaking ahead of the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit and on how transforming agri-food systems must be part of a rural transformation, he added how we need to move away from previous economic models that focus on the agricultural productivity of only a few crops and consider rural development as a holistic, multi-faceted venture. “We need to shift the paradigm,” he said.
New York – 14 July With the World Food Forum (WFF) and other partners, FAO led today the HLPF side-event “From Strategy to Action: Youth leadership in agri-food systems transformation and innovation for a better food future for everyone, everywhere,” which put youth on the driver’s seat. Over 10 youth leaders, innovators, farmers, scientists, advocates shared their ideas and concrete work to fix food systems.
Speaking at the opening segment, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said: “The future of food belongs to the young people of today.” Qu highlighted how understanding and responding to the complexities of our agri-food systems call for a coordinated, multi-sectoral and inter-generational approach. “We need to create an open and meaningful space for youth engagement, participation and leadership,” he said, adding that “today’s side event is an important milestone on this path.” Representing this call to action on behalf of FAO's own young talents, was Associate Professional Officer Lina Yu, an expert on animal health and One Health who called for active youth engagement on improved food production practices and consumption patterns, in line with FAO’s One Health approach.
The World Food Forum is a youth-led movement and network of partners, created for and led by youth, to spark a movement to transform our global agri-food systems and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In full alignment with and contributing to the United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021, it serves as the premier platform to engage and harness the passion of youth in order to galvanize action and identify solutions to the growing challenges facing our agri-food systems. The flagship event of the WFF will be a week-long celebration of youth-driven, sustainable solutions and innovative approaches for a better food future, taking place from 1 to 6 October of this year. Read more here.
New York – 13 July 2021 At today’s side event on “Territorial approaches for inclusive and resilient food systems,” FAO Director of Food Systems and Food Safety, Jamie Morrison, highlighted how territorial approaches can help anchor rural development with food security and nutrition strategies, building on the interdependencies of rural and urban communities. He also stressed the important roles of cities and local governments in supporting agri-food systems within their territories.
“Urban areas currently house a proportion of the global population that consumes 70 percent of the food which is produced globally. The actions that those consumers take has a major impact on the opportunities provided to local producers,” he said. Looking back at the last 12 months, he noted that “one of the impacts of the pandemic has been a greater focus on local production for local consumption,” adding that territorial approaches can provide a useful tool for achieving more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, a discussion he believes is central ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit.
Morrison also spoke of FAO’s contribution to the territorial agenda explaining how FAO works on fostering rural and urban linkages in food systems, including through participatory community-led approaches and national and supranational governance frameworks to help identify timely and strategic investments.
New York – 12 July 2021 For the third year running, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) flagship report was launched today by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO at an HLPF special event. SOFI revealed a dramatic worsening of world hunger in 2020, much of it likely related to the fallout of COVID-19. It is estimated that around one-tenth of the global population – up to 811 million people – was undernourished last year. The number suggests it will take a tremendous effort for the world to honour its pledge to end hunger by 2030.
“The world is at a critical juncture; very different to where it was six years ago, when it committed to the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030…. Six years ago, we were optimistic that past progress would keep us on track to achieve this goal, but trends have shown we are not going in the right direction. The pandemic made the pathway towards our goal even steeper. But it has also widely exposed the fragilities of our agri-food systems, giving us a unique opportunity to build forward better. We have less than a decade to do so, and prove that our commitment and actions were bold enough,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu at the launch event.
He added that “we have no choice but to transform the agri-food systems to address the major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition” and stressed that the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 is an opportunity to bring forward a series of concrete solutions and actions to reach the goal of Zero Hunger and advance towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda as a whole. Read more here. Access all SOFI 2021 resources here.
New York – 9 July 2021 Today, FAO Chief Scientist Ismahane Elouafi participated in the HLPF session on “Mobilizing science technology and innovation and strengthening the science-policy-society-interface,” joining straight from the closing of the UN Food Systems Summit Science Days, hosted this week by FAO. She brought core calls to action from Rome to New York, highlighting the importance of innovation to de-risk food systems and strengthen their resilience; to facilitate the access to resources, markets and labour for the most vulnerable; to protect and regenerate soils, water and landscapes and preserve biodiversity; and to promote sustainable agriculture. She also referred to the importance of bioscience and digital innovations to improve the health of people and ecosystems, increase productivity, promote efficiency, and inclusivity in food systems transformation, and empower rural communities.
Elouafi added that FAO sees science, technology and innovation (STI) as a core driver to achieve the SDGs. “FAO strongly believes that STI accelerates the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems that produce more food, of greater nutritional value, reduce food loss and waste, and achieve this with least environmental damage,” she said.
New York – 9 July 2021 This morning Selvaraju Ramasamy, Head of Research and Extension at FAO’s Office of Innovation, participated in the side-event “High-level dialogue on the Partnership in Action on Science, Technology and Innovation for SDGs Roadmaps”. The event centered on tools and solutions to strengthen countries’ ownership of science, technology and innovation (STI) for sustainable development. Discussions also touched on elevating the policy debate on STI for SDGs and mobilizing national efforts through effective partnerships. In this respect, Ramasamy highlighted the multi-faceted contributions of STI as part of agri-food systems transformation, including by bringing agriculture and food security perspectives into STI for SDG roadmap processes at the national level. This builds on the experiences and lessons from FAO’s work on strengthening agricultural innovation systems through the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) partnership, a multi-stakeholder mechanism to strengthen capacities of Agricultural Innovation Systems.
“FAO strongly believes that STI is the key accelerator in supporting the Agenda 2030,” he said, adding that FAO expertise can build on the Global Pilot Programme on STI for SDG Roadmaps, not least through efforts towards the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, to achieve better production, nutrition, environment and life for all.
New York – 8 July 2021 Today, Mette Wilkie, Director of FAO’s Forestry Division, moderated the side event “Towards a road to sustainable and resilient recovery in mountains,” organized by the Permanent Mission of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United Nations under the auspices of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, which is housed in FAO. Underscoring the need to scale up efforts and refocus attention to mountain ecosystems and mountain peoples on the heels of the Decade of Action to achieve the SDGs, Wilkie spoke of the essential goods and services that mountains provide: freshwater, biodiversity, forest products and clean energy. “They are vital for life on Earth,” she said, pointing to the recently launched UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
She moved on to stress how the COVID-19 pandemic had further disrupted life in mountain areas, compounding the vulnerabilities of mountain communities, small-scale farmers and pastoralists, many of whom were already affected by natural hazards, climate change, conflicts and land degradation. With this in mind, Wilkie shared FAO’s vision to restoring mountain ecosystems, building climate resilience and empowering mountain communities, all of which are especially critical to achieving SDGs 1, 2, 13 and 15. Read the FAO publication on mountain farming systems launched during the side event. See the highlights from the event’s proceedings here.
New York – 7 July 2021 Today Keith Sumption, FAO Chief Veterinary Officer, spoke on the interlinkages between health and the environment at the side event “One Health Approach – For Environmental Health and Environmental Pollution Prevention”. Setting the scene on the interconnectedness between human, animal and plant health, Sumption also spoke in his capacity as the Chair of the Tripartite on One Health led by FAO, OIE and WHO. He shared the priority areas driving FAO’s One Health approach, which extend beyond zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance into areas spanning the human-animal-environmental interface. “Human, animal and ecosystem health are interconnected and interdependent, and the environment is a key point for connection,” he said, speaking on how our agri-food systems have a leading influence on human, animal and ecosystem health.
He shared how FAO’s integrated water management approach considers sustainable land use and the prevention of soil pollution, with water access, utilization and governance and their impact on soils and biodiversity seen as essential in safeguarding human, animal and plant life. Among other key areas of action, Sumption highlighted how cropping systems and aquaculture can and should play a role in protecting these water and soil resources, both of which are critical to ensuring food security and food safety.
New York – 7 July 2021 Speaking at today’s HLPF session on “SDGs in focus: SDGs 1, 2, 8, 17 and interlinkages among those goals and with other SDGs,” FAO Chief Economist, Máximo Torero, warned that the world was off track to meet SDG2 and said that COVID-19 had increased hunger, exacerbated inequalities and exposed structural vulnerabilities of agri-food systems.
He proposed three key actions to regain ground in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. First, invest in rural areas. “Eighty percent of the world’s poorest, that is 600 million people, live in rural areas, work in the agricultural sector, and yet go to bed hungry,” he said, noting also that growth in the agricultural sector was significantly more effective to reduce poverty in lower and middle-income countries than that in other sectors. Second, increasing public and private investments and financing to SDG 2. According to Torero, an additional US$ 39 to US$50 billion per annum was needed to end hunger by 2030. Lastly, he underscored the importance of ensuring coherence between sectoral incentives and policies to remain coherent with and complementary to the SDGs.
New York – 6 July 2021 The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) started this Tuesday and runs until 15 July, providing the global platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Under the theme "Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development," the HLPF aims to engage Member States, UN agencies and bodies and a wide array of stakeholders around the key drivers and actionable initiatives that can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the HLPF side event “The role of forests in time of crisis: sustainable production and consumption patterns to turn the tide on deforestation,” Mette Wilkie, Director of FAO’s Forestry Division and Chair of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, outlined an array of actions that policymakers, private sector actors, local communities and the broader public at large can adopt to help protect, manage and restore forests. From reducing food loss and waste to pursuing more responsible food production and consumption patterns, and from mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in forest management and agricultural production to investing in forest-based livelihoods to restoring ecosystems, Wilkie spoke of how an agri-food systems transformation can create jobs, help tackle climate change, and contribute to global food security. “Feeding humanity and conserving forests are complementary and interdependent goals,” she said, pointing as well to the recently launched UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
New York – 2 July 2021 FAO contributed to the preparatory process of the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) and has participated in the discussions leading to the HLPF. In this context, FAO was a lead entity at today’s 2021 ECOSOC Integration Segment, where FAO Director-General QU Dongyu underscored that building back more resilient, healthy, equitable and sustainable societies is “one of the most critical issues currently facing humanity”. Among his key messages and calls to action, the Director-General spoke of how FAO’s new Strategic Framework seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation of agri-food systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind. Read more here.
Stay informed on FAO’s engagement at the HLPF 2021 here.